Boy's gift gave her chance to live again

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 19, 1998

"Nicholas' Gift" in Rome, she had to be helped from the theater to compose herself. In October 1994, Ciampi was one of seven Italians who received organs or corneas from 7-year-old Nicholas Green.

Like Andrea Mongiardo, Tino Motta, Anna Maria di Ceglie and Maria Pia Pedala, Ciampi knows she literally owes her life to Nicholas and his parents, Reg and Maggie Green.

Despite congenital diabetes, Ciampi grew up and into an athlete and ballet dancer. But in her mid-20s, her life changed drastically: she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The diabetes no longer controllable, her body began to deteriorate. By the time she got on line for a transplant, her pancreas was destroyed, she had severe damage to her nervous system and was losing her eyesight.

"I tried three times to commit suicide," she said last winter during an interview in her apartment in Rome.

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"Finally, I got the idea, God doesn't want me to die."

Four hours after receiving a call, Ciampi was in a Rome hospital. Islet cells from Nicholas' pancreas were pumped intravenously into her liver. The liver now functions as her pancreas, and the diabetes has disappeared from her system.

Although she walks with a pronounced limp and suffers palsy in her right leg and hand, Ciampi spends 5-1/4 hours each day on therapy exercises to maintain her strength and independence. She says she is happy to live "day by day," perhaps long enough to see a cure discovered for

MS.

"Science is moving so quickly," she said.

Asked how often she thinks about Nicholas, Ciampi said,

"sempre" - always.

"Without Nicholas, I would be dead now - or on dialysis in a hospital and blind," she said.

The other four Italians who received Nicholas' vital organs are still alive and living outside of hospitals. Maria Pia Pedala, who has Nicholas' liver, is seven months pregnant with her first child.&lt;